Politics

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Last week the University of California announced that it will not cooperate with federal immigration agents and that it welcomes students, quote, "without regard to their immigration status." It's a move that could put the university directly in conflict with the Trump administration. AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: I spoke about this with Janet Napolitano. She's the president of the University of California. She also served...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: After dealing with a series of fake news stories, a local pizzeria in Washington faced a very real threat over the weekend. The restaurant Comet Ping Pong has been the target of online conspiracy theorist. And on Sunday, a man from North Carolina entered the pizzeria and fired a rifle. The man was arrested, and no injuries were reported. According to police, the man said he was investigating claims of a child sex...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Donald Trump's latest Cabinet pick is a man who was once his rival for the presidency. Ben Carson is the president-elect's choice to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD. Carson's personal story makes him well-suited for the role, his experience less so. Carson is a medical doctor who has never run a government agency. Amy Liu worked at HUD during the Clinton administration, and she now...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: Let's look at what comes next for the Dakota Access Pipeline. Yesterday's decision by the Army Corps of Engineers has brought construction to a halt for now. The Corps says it's going to consider alternative routes for the pipeline which is nearly completed. NPR's Nathan Rott is in North Dakota where protesters continue to have a lot of questions and concerns. NATHAN ROTT, BYLINE: First there were excited...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: One phone call on Friday was enough to cause an uproar in Washington and Beijing. It was a call between President-elect Donald Trump and Taiwan's president. It's not clear who on Trump's team arranged it. And as NPR's Jackie Northam reports, that one call could have big ramifications. JACKIE NORTHAM, BYLINE: The telephone call between Trump and Taiwan's president, Tsai Ing-wen, sent the president-elect's transition...

In what may be the most unlikely meeting of the presidential transition process so far, former vice president, former Democratic presidential nominee, former senator and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore met with President-elect Donald Trump on Monday. Gore has spent decades warning about the dire consequences of unchecked, man-made climate change, while Trump has regularly called climate change "a hoax" during the campaign. Initially, the session was not even expected to include the president...

Fake news stories can have real-life consequences. On Sunday, police said a man with a rifle who claimed to be "self-investigating" a baseless online conspiracy theory entered a Washington, D.C., pizzeria and fired the weapon inside the restaurant. So, yes, fake news is a big problem. These stories have gotten a lot of attention, with headlines claiming Pope Francis endorsed Donald Trump in November's election and sites like American News sharing misleading stories or taking quotes out of...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: President-elect Donald Trump has made another Cabinet announcement. This morning he appointed Dr. Ben Carson as his secretary of Housing and Urban Development. For more on the latest member of the new Trump administration, we're joined now by a longtime adviser and friend of Ben Carson. He is conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams. Mr. Williams, thanks for being with us. ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS: Yes, good...

For more than a quarter century, two legislative districts in North Carolina have been ground zero in a fight over race and redistricting. In the course of that time, Republicans have taken control of the state Legislature, and the two political parties have reversed their legal positions regarding the use of race and drawing district lines. When these two congressional districts first came before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1993, the court majority characterized District 12 as "bizarre,...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: We want to spend a few minutes on the election recount spurred by Green Party candidate Jill Stein. You heard from her directly on this program last week. One recount is already underway in Wisconsin, and Michigan recounts are expected to begin next week. Pennsylvania is less clear. Stein said last night that she would drop her efforts there after a judge required the voters who brought the suit to pay a $1...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. AILSA CHANG, HOST: This week, the Supreme Court will hear cases on whether lawmakers in Virginia and North Carolina rely too heavily on race when drawing congressional districts. The Supreme Court has ruled before on race and redistricting, but it's avoided getting involved in evaluating partisan gerrymandering. That could change all because of a recent decision by a federal district court in Wisconsin. University of Chicago law...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. AILSA CHANG, HOST: The far-right candidate in Austria's rerun presidential election today, Norbert Hofer, has apparently gone down in defeat. The vote was closely watched as the latest test of the anti-establishment populist sentiment sweeping Europe and the U.S. The projected winner is Alexander Van der Bellen, a left-leaning independent. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is in Vienna covering the vote and joins me on the line. Hey,...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. AILSA CHANG, HOST: President-elect Donald Trump has yet to name a secretary of state, but he shook up longstanding U.S. foreign policy this past week. And while he went off the usual script in the international arena, at home, he seemed stuck in campaign mode at times. NPR's national political correspondent Mara Liasson joins me now to talk about where the Trump transition stands. Hey, Mara. MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa. CHANG: So...

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act first and replace it sometime later . That doesn't sit well with Victoria Barton, who lives in McCarthy's rural California district. "It's like they dangled the carrot and now they're taking it away," said Barton, 38, of Bakersfield, an unpaid photographer and stay-at-home mother of two. Barton and her husband, a contract computer technician, had been uninsured for most of their adult lives. When Obamacare expanded...

The Jill Stein campaign plans to bring her fight for a statewide ballot recount in Pennsylvania to federal court. Jonathan Abady, lead counsel to Stein's recount efforts, said in a statement late Saturday that starting Monday, the campaign will "file for emergency relief in federal court, demanding a statewide recount on constitutional grounds." "It has become clear that the barriers to verifying the vote in Pennsylvania are so pervasive and that the state court system is so ill-equipped to...

Copyright 2016 American Homefront Project. To see more, visit American Homefront Project . MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: There is still one race from last month's election that has yet to be decided - the governor of North Carolina. The incumbent, Republican Pat McCrory, trails his Democratic challenger, Roy Cooper, by 10,000 votes. But McCrory has refused to concede. This weekend, there is going to be a recount in one of the state's biggest counties. We're joined now by Jeff Tiberii of member station...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Now it's time for a trip to the Barbershop. That's where we gather a group of interesting folks to talk about what's in the news and what's on our minds. Joining us for a shape-up this weekend are Jolene Ivey. She's a former Democratic state lawmaker from Maryland. She's now a public relations consultant. Puneet Ahluwalia is a businessman. He's active in the local Republican Party in northern Virginia, and he's...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: President-elect Donald Trump told supporters at a rally this week that he plans to nominate retired Marine General James Mattis as his defense secretary. General Mattis retired as chief of U.S. Central Command just two years ago, and that's raised questions about whether the appointment so soon after his active service adheres to the spirit of civilian control over the military in this country. We will ask where...

The debate over encryption and government access to secured communications dates decades back. But for many Americans, it grabbed their attention in the early months of this year, in the aftermath of the Dec. 2, 2015, mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. It was a saga that unraveled over weeks . Looking for leads on the terrorist's iPhone, the FBI wanted to crack the PIN code on the device. The bureau got a court order and demanded that Apple write special software to thwart security...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: Silicon Valley has reportedly done some soul-searching after last month's presidential election. Many in high-tech supported Hillary Clinton and have criticized Facebook and Google for being vehicles to spread fake news stories, many of which vilified Clinton. And some wonder if Silicon Valley entrepreneurs lack understanding and concern for those millions of Americans left behind by the technological innovation...

Four days. 92 volunteers. And 150 pounds of gingerbread. That's just part of what goes into decorating for the White House for Christmas. Volunteers went to work the day after Thanksgiving, stringing thousands of bow ribbons and crystal ornaments throughout the mansion. Military families got a sneak peak at the decorations this week. "As we celebrate my family's last holiday season in the White House, I'm thinking back to when we first came here to Washington and we promised to open up this...

President-elect Donald Trump has been speaking on the phone with numerous world leaders since his election, but a call Friday has the potential to cause diplomatic waves. The Trump transition office confirms Trump spoke with the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen. The call has raised eyebrows because the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1979, when it recognized mainland China. And it's believed to be the first time a U.S. president or president-elect has spoken with a...

A few days before the election, an extraordinary story popped up in hundreds of thousands of people's Facebook feeds. This story was salacious. It was vivid, filled with intriguing details. There was a photo of a burning house, firemen rushing in. The headline read, "FBI Agent Suspected In Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead In Apparent Murder-Suicide." It was all fake. There was no FBI agent. There was no shooting. The site it was published on, The Denver Guardian, isn't a real news source . It...

This week in race: Sports (dog) whistles, protection for Dreamers, a special book—and some hunky calendar men. Really. Now that the turkey endorphins have worn off, the leftovers are a distant memory, and the Obamas prepare for their last Christmas in the White House, we thought we'd put some of the things that happened over the holiday weekend (and this week) on a platter and offer them to you. No thank you notes required. Race and Immigration: The University of California system said no,...

If you're curious about what people really think about some of the hottest of hot-button food controversies, the Pew Research Center has just the thing for you: a survey of attitudes toward genetic modification, organic food and the importance of eating healthfully. The survey results are published in a 99-page report that can keep you occupied for days. But if you're pressed for time, here are some of the most interesting highlights that caught our eye. 1. A lot of Americans don't care what...

The post-election uproar over fake news and far-right websites is taking its toll on the advertising industry. Kellogg's announced it is pulling ads from the site Breitbart — which publishes right-wing content. Other brands are planning similar moves. But there's one big reason to believe this is just a short-term reaction in the heat of the moment, not a long-term trend. A new filter In general, big brands don't want to place their ads next to a story or picture that could create a problem...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: World leaders are now trying to figure out what a Donald Trump presidency will mean for their countries. Take the Philippines - today, Trump and the president of the Phillippines, Rodrigo Duterte, had a friendly phone call. They invited each other to come visit. The Philippines has been an ally of the U.S. for a long time. It used to be a U.S. colony, but recently things have been tense. Duterte's is carrying out...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Transitions between American presidents don't happen very often, and when they do, they force people to switch from theoretical promises of a campaign to the very real decisions of the new government. We're going to look back now at the last two presidential transitions with people who worked on them. David Axelrod was a senior adviser to President Obama and joins us from Chicago. Ari Fleischer was President George...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: Let's take a look now at Retired General James Mattis, President-elect Donald Trump's choice for secretary of defense. Mattis is a battle-hardened, highly-decorated Marine. Like Trump, he's known for speaking his mind. And there are questions about how much the two men will agree on the issues they'll face together. NPR's David Welna reports. DAVID WELNA, BYLINE: When President-elect Trump broke the news at a...

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/. AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: For more on this and the rest of the week in politics, we turn to David Brooks of The New York Times. Welcome back, David. DAVID BROOKS, BYLINE: Good to be here. CORNISH: And sitting in for E.J. Dionne is Jamelle Bouie, chief political correspondent for Slate. Welcome to the program. JAMELLE BOUIE: Thank you for having me. CORNISH: So this week started with scrutiny of Donald Trump's business interest and...